Be legal and help the Mississippi Department of Wildlife,
Fisheries, and Parks help our natural resources and you, the
outdoor enthusiast. If you've visited a Wildlife Management
Area (WMA) in the past, you may be familiar with the Daily Visitor
Use Permit Card. You can find Daily Visitor Use Permit Cards
at permit stations located at, or near, entrances to all of
Mississippi's WMAs. This daily permit is an important tool in
the management of these areas. Managers are able to gather
harvest and use data for all species and activities on a particular
WMA. This supports management recommendations on all aspects
of that area. From a wildlife management standpoint, the
information you and your fellow WMA users provide on the cards
gives wildlife biologists valuable data on which to base management
decisions regarding season structure, bag limits, and habitat
management.

This past hunting season we began compiling harvest and use data
obtained from permit cards on a daily basis and posting these
numbers on our website each week. Now, during hunting
seasons, you can monitor current harvest and use numbers for each
WMA.

The Daily Visitor Use Permit Card also supports your personal
safety. If an emergency arises while you're in the woods, or
you get lost in the pursuit of your prey, area managers and
conservation officers will be better able to quickly determine your
location on an area if you have complied with permit card
requirements. This may not seem like such a big deal on some
of the smaller areas, but if you are on a 60,000 acre area with
multiple entrances, it could make a critical difference.

Our staff needs quality and quantity when it comes to Daily
Visitor Use Permit Card data. The more information we
receive, the better we can manage the resource and the user
public. The daily permit cards must be completed properly to
provide the most accurate data. Please fill out all of the
information requested and print legibly. Each year we gather
a large number of cards that are incomplete and unusable.

The correct procedure is simple:

Extract a Daily Visitor Use Permit Card from a Daily Visitor
Permit Station on the WMA.

Complete the front and back of part A and place it in the box
at the Visitor Permit Station.

Complete the front of part B and place it on the dash of your
vehicle in plain sight or carry it on your person (depending on
instructions in area regulations) while using the area.

When finished on the area, complete the back side of part B and
place in the box at the Visitor Permit Station.

Here are some more tips to remember when completing
Daily Visitor Use Permit cards:

Do it. Avoid a citation by correctly completing a card
each time you use a WMA. Read the instructions at the permit
station.

Make sure part A is placed in a WMA visitor permit box and part
B, with the front completed, is visible on the dashboard of your
vehicle or is on your person, whichever is applicable.

Complete a Daily Visitor Use Permit Card each time you visit
the WMA. If you leave the WMA and come back the same day,
that means you should have completed two Daily Visitor Use Permit
Cards.

Make sure that everyone with you completes a Daily Visitor Use
Permit Card.

If you didn't harvest anything, put a zero in the appropriate
box beside the species you hunted.

If you check "Other" on part A and B, please specify with one
or two words what the other activity is.

Make sure the date is correct. That helps us keep track
of when activities are done and, potentially, better distribute
visitor use.

Pass along your knowledge of how to properly complete a Daily
Visitor Use Permit Card to others.

With your help, MDWFP wildlife managers will continue to be good
stewards of natural resources on WMAs. Introduce someone to
hunting and fishing. Maybe we'll bump into you at a visitor
permit station.